Former Valve employee seeks $3.1M in trans. discrimination suit - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE]A former translator for Valve Corporation is suing the game maker for more than $3 million, alleging that her supervisor at the company created a hostile work environment by referring to her as "it" following her sex reassignment surgery, according to the suit obtained by Polygon. The employee, who is identified only by initials in the lawsuit, also says that Valve fired her after she complained to human resources about the company's practice of [B]"utilizing people who were interested in their products to provide translation services for free."[/B] ... Within days of filing a written complaint about the practice, the translator was fired, the lawsuit says. Valve said at the time that her job was being relocated to Washington. But when the translator offered to move, Valve declined to keep her on, according to the suit. The translator believes she was fired because of her complaint and because her supervisor was uncomfortable with her being a transgender woman. According to the suit, he would refer to the translator as "it."[/QUOTE] [URL]http://www.polygon.com/2016/5/24/11761242/valve-former-employee-lawsuit-transgender-discrimination[/URL] More: [URL]http://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-facing-3-million-transgender-discrimination-/1100-6440133/[/URL] [url]http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-05-24-former-valve-employee-alleges-she-was-fired-for-being-transgender[/url] The legal forms are included.

talk about shitty practice, wow.

[QUOTE=Limed00d;50385035]talk about shitty practice, wow.[/QUOTE] so you're just assuming these allegations are even true? obviously if they are found out to be true, the supervisor should be fired, but making judgements like this before any evidence comes to light is pretty shitty.

[QUOTE=Limed00d;50385035]talk about shitty practice, wow.[/QUOTE] if it's true.

Welp, there goes the last sliver of faith I had in Valve if this is true. I hope not. Honestly even with Valve's current state, this seems incredibly out of character for them.

This won't gain any traction, people have already forgotten about the Benzies fiasco.

I don't know, it could be a case of one Valve employee being transphobic, it could be a case of miscommunication, or outright a lie. Or Valve isn't open to Trans, and its all true. This smells off though, now THIS doesn't seem like Valve.

[QUOTE=NixNax123;50385042]so you're just assuming these allegations are even true?[/QUOTE] at this point it honestly wouldn't surprise me [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] thought time will tell I suppose.

[QUOTE=Limed00d;50385058]at this point it honestly wouldn't surprise me[/QUOTE] Valve is really shitty with communication and a lot of things being closed minded like this really doesn't sound like their style of fucking up. if anything for all we know, they probably, as usual, failed to communicate something. We know they're bad at communicating in PR. it could translate into the inner workings of the company as well for all we know.

[QUOTE=J!NX;50385054]I don't know, it could be a case of one Valve employee being transphobic, it could be a case of miscommunication, or outright a lie. Or Valve isn't open to Trans, and its all true. This smells off though, now THIS doesn't seem like Valve.[/QUOTE] i really doubt it would be a company policy or part of company culture or shit like that, mkst likely just that supervisor

Both the Gamespot and Gameindustry.biz articles are making references to Polygon obtaining the lawsuit forms. Would have been nice if more than one place was able to get said paperwork. Not to call this lawsuit into question, but if Polygon is the only one with the paperwork I have some doubt about this article.

[QUOTE=Smug Bastard;50385047]Welp, there goes the last sliver of faith I had in Valve if this is true. I hope not. Honestly even with Valve's current state, this seems incredibly out of character for them.[/QUOTE] Why Judge the whole company based on the actions of a single supervisor?

[QUOTE=Limed00d;50385058]at this point it honestly wouldn't surprise me[/QUOTE] why not? pessimism? about valve and its workers or the video game industry as a whole? vg biz is very inclusive, and there has never been a story about a valve employee, or several employees, being offensive to a person's identity or gender. so i'm very sad to hear you wouldn't be surprised by something like this if it were to be true, and very curious to know why. also i thought translators for valve games weren't necessarily in-house. the localization team for tf2, for example, was not in-house at all. so reading this story already has me a little confused.

[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;50385066]i really doubt it would be a company policy or part of company culture or shit like that, mkst likely just that supervisor[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=TheJoey;50385095]there has never been a story about a valve employee, or several employees, being offensive to a person's identity or gender. so i'm very sad to hear you wouldn't be surprised by something like this if it were to be true, and very curious to know why.[/QUOTE] Tbh I would easily expect Valve to be the least offensive company to work with ever they'd probably be about as offensive as a freshly bathed and dried basket of kittens

They should make the supervisor pay those 3M tbh, not the company itself. Fuckin make him bankrupt

[QUOTE=Limed00d;50385058]at this point it honestly wouldn't surprise me[/QUOTE] "they added flashy hats and tried to monetize mods so they're probably transphobic as well" is what I'm getting from this

[QUOTE=Steel & Iron;50385071]Both the Gamespot and Gameindustry.biz articles are making references to Polygon obtaining the lawsuit forms. Would have been nice if more than one place was able to get said paperwork. Not to call this lawsuit into question, but if Polygon is the only one with the paperwork I have some doubt about this article.[/QUOTE] Seems to be the only site for now with the documents.

Honestly with Polygon being the only source for this, I would take this with a shaker of salt. They love to exaggerate things in order to have a clear victim.

[QUOTE=J!NX;50385054]I don't know, it could be a case of one Valve employee being transphobic, it could be a case of miscommunication, or outright a lie. Or Valve isn't open to Trans, and its all true. This smells off though, now THIS doesn't seem like Valve.[/QUOTE] Judge for yourself: [quote]According to the April 12 filing, the plaintiff worked at Valve's headquarters in Washington state prior to 2012. [b]Sometime in 2012, the litigant planned to undergo gender transition and told the company she needed to move to Los Angeles, where her doctors were located and where she could recover while still working. Valve accommodated her request, allowing her to work from home in LA to recover from the surgery[/b], but also because of "related disabilities including depression."[/quote] It sounds like the supervisor, Torsten, is a real dick and [url=http://steamunpowered.eu/few-words-about-valves-employee-torsten-zabka]attention has been called to this before[/url]. Valve needs to fire the dude.

[QUOTE=Svinnik;50385130]Honestly with Polygon being the only source for this, I would take this with a shaker of salt. They love to exaggerate things in order to have a clear victim.[/QUOTE] There's legal documents there, that's where their info is from.

The only thing we can say for sure is she's kinda right about the whole relying on fan translations thing. However Polygon conveniently being the only holders of the actual paperwork practically means we know nothing other than the law suit has been filed.

[QUOTE=Smug Bastard;50385047]Welp, there goes the last sliver of faith I had in Valve if this is true. I hope not. Honestly even with Valve's current state, this seems incredibly out of character for them.[/QUOTE] Yeah hah someone accused some local boss at valve for gender discrimination, I lost all hope. Even though valve was pretty fucking nice, letting her move from Washing to LA and work at home to complete the transition. [QUOTE]According to the April 12 filing, the plaintiff worked at Valve's headquarters in Washington state prior to 2012. Sometime in 2012, the litigant planned to undergo gender transition and [B]told the company she needed to move to Los Angeles[/B], where her doctors were located and where she could recover while still working. [/QUOTE] Then she started complaining about the translation practice, which has always been more of a voluntary thing the community can parttake in IIRC. [QUOTE]The translator continued to work at Valve until earlier this year, when she filed a complaint about unpaid translators whom she felt were being exploited and lured to work for free based on "false promises made by her supervisor," according to the suit. [/QUOTE] She can absolutely be fired for this. She can be fired because she farted in the wrong room, and especially considering she was turned into an independent contractor.

[QUOTE=NixNax123;50385042]so you're just assuming these allegations are even true? obviously if they are found out to be true, the supervisor should be fired, but making judgements like this before any evidence comes to light is pretty shitty.[/QUOTE] The thing about Valve's mistreatment of localization staff has been around for a very long time and I'm surprised it took this long to result in a lawsuit [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;50385111]They should make the supervisor pay those 3M tbh, not the company itself. Fuckin make him bankrupt[/QUOTE] Generally when you fuck up at work you're shielded from personal liability. One of the risks of hiring people is that your company takes responsibility for what that person does while on the clock. There are exceptions of course, but a video game dev company isn't likely to be one of them.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that a supervisor called her "it," without any other Valve employee noticing and reporting it

[QUOTE=Oscar Lima Echo;50385147] She can absolutely be fired for this. She can be fired because she farted in the wrong room, and especially considering she was turned into an independent contractor.[/QUOTE] You can be fired for no reason, but you [i]cannot[/i] be fired for refusing to work for free.

Let's hold on for a moment here, Polygon is not exactly known for journalistic integrity and human rights issues are frequently abused by certain types of people who have no respect for neither actual sufferers of gender dysphoria nor the reputation of people they personally dislike. If this is true though, the supervisor should be fired and should never have a job carrying any authority over people again. Workplace harassment is not a nice thing, but neither is using it as a weapon against someone you carry a personal grudge towards. Nobody should have their lives ruined over petty grudges, but neither should anyone be an asshole to another for being who they are. In this case the claim is coming from a dubious source, which is when the story should be taken with a grain of salt.

[QUOTE=TheJoey;50385095]why not? pessimism? about valve and its workers or the video game industry as a whole? vg biz is very inclusive, and there has never been a story about a valve employee, or several employees, being offensive to a person's identity or gender. so i'm very sad to hear you wouldn't be surprised by something like this if it were to be true, and very curious to know why.[/QUOTE] I'll admit, I made a very hasty assumption (easy to make mistakes when you've been awake for like 30 hours) but still, my lack of faith in cases like these isn't just exclusive to valve, or the video game industry for that matter, and it mostly stems from reading about similar cases with less than optimal outcome for the offended. but yeah I'm probably overly pessimistic and should probably wait for more information to surface before formulating an opinion about this. [QUOTE=Davoc;50385113]"they added flashy hats and tried to monetize mods so they're probably transphobic as well" is what I'm getting from this[/QUOTE] if only I actually were against the monetization of mods then this assumption would have had [I]some[/I] merit.

I've never been good at US geography, but what the fuck. This woman was allowed to work from the complete opposite side of the country, a goddamn 4400 km or 2600 miles, and thinks it would be a good idea to complain to HR to change things in the company.

sounds like they got fired because the translator program is obsolete because all of the translation system work is now done voluntarily

[QUOTE=Zeke129;50385184]You can be fired for no reason, but you [i]cannot[/i] be fired for refusing to work for free.[/QUOTE] Where does it say she was working for free?